Government is failing not helping renewables
05 April 2007
The Green Party today labelled government attempts to show itself as supporting small-scale renewables through planning as 'a tiny gesture', when their other policies have descended into a farce that is putting people off installing wind turbines and solar panels at home.
Communities secretary Ruth Kelly today unveiled proposals which could allow homeowners to install energy-generating devices like solar panels without planning permission.
Green Party Principal Speaker Siân Berry said: "Ruth Kelly claims she is paving the way for more green power at a local level.
"But the government's repeated failure to support the renewable energy fund for homes is hindering people's efforts every day.
"Every month, this poverty-stricken fund runs out of money - for the last four months grants have run out early, and this month they have stopped the fund altogether.
"The Green Party has called for more funding be put into this vital pot - but Brown's budget offered a paltry six million pounds extra, and the immediate impact of that has simply been to suspend the fund.
"They can talk about climate change as much as they want, but here we have real people trying to take real action to curb our emissions, and the government is failing them.
"Only this week we learnt that emissions are actually on the rise in the UK - but Kelly like most of the Labour party believes real action has to 'take place at community level'
"The Labour government have had 10 years to tackle climate change. Initiatives like this smack dangerously of too little too late."
